Wednesday, November 09, 2005

• Following his highlight-worthy performance against Tennessee, Tom Zbikowski is now ranked 3rd in the nation in punt-return average with a 19.69 yard return average. As Mike noted below, Zbikowski is one of 3 returners in the country (along with Maurice Drew of UCLA and Wisconsin's Brandon Williams) with more than one punt returned for a touchdown. As a team, Notre Dame is ranked 4th in the nation.

• The offense keeps putting up points. The game notes on und.com (which do a fantastic job highlighting comparisons between the current Irish squad and those of year's past) notes that the current Irish team have scored 30 or more points in seven games this year. This is just the 7th time since 1913 that an Irish team has accomplished this feat. The record for 30+ point games in a season is nine, set in 1991.

• Quinn Record Watch. Brady Quinn only needs 107 passing yards to pass Jarious Jackson for the single season passing yardage record (2,753). Quinn needs 353 yards passing to become Notre Dame's first 3,000 yard passer. The all-time passing record (7,602) held by Ron Powlus is 538 yards away. Other records to keep an eye out for during the Navy game. Quinn is 12 pass attempts away from passing Powlus for all-time pass attempts; similarly, he is 33 completions away from the record in that category. Quinn is 3 touchdown passes away from tying Powlus for all-time TD passes.

• Jeff Samardzija's 73-yard reception in the 3rd quarter was only the 9th-longest reception in the NCAA this season that didn't result in a touchdown. The longest belongs to Hawaii's Ross Dickerson who caught and ran for 87 yards without hitting paydirt.

• Against Tennesse, the Notre Dame defense struggled a bit on 3rd and long (read: 3rd and 6 or greater) by allowing the Vols to convert 6 of 14 such attempts. That mars what has been an exceptional season thusfar on 3rd and long defense. Overall, the Irish have only allowed 15 of 71 (22.5%) 3rd and long attempts to be converted. On overall 3rd down defense, Notre Dame is ranked 18th in the country, holding opponents to a 37 for 113 (32.7%) conversion rate.

What is also interesting is that there have been 71 3rd-and-long attempts out of 113 3rd-down attempts. That means that 63% of the time an ND opponent is forced to 3rd down, it is 3rd and 6 or longer.

• The 94-yard drive in the first quarter was ND's third 90+ yard drive this season. Helping the Irish sustain long drives has been the impressive number of first downs acheived. After totalling only 217 first downs last season for an average of 18.1 first downs a game, the Irish have 199 so far on the season for an average of 24.8 per game.

• With the two interceptions against Tennessee, the 2005 ND Defense passed the total number of interceptions recorded by the 2004 Defense. Interestingly, all 11 interceptions this year have been by members of the ND secondary, while only 5 of the 9 last year were.

Season Long Running Averages

If you want to see the per game breakdown of the first six games, click here.

Category

BYU

UT

1st Six

2005

2004

Yards per rush

1.9

1.4

3.6

3.3

3.32

Avg yards per PA

11.4

8.9

8.4

8.9

7.2

Avg yards per PC

14.6

14.8

13.3

13.6

13.4

Pass completion %

78%

61%

63%

65%

54%

3rd downs conv.

6/11 (55%)

7/16 (44%)

46/96 (48%)

59/123 (48%)

68/183 (37%)

Rushing yd avg

44.0

48.0

170.8

139.63 (63rd)

127.4 (85th)

Passing yd avg

467.0

295.0

318.8

334.38 (5th)

218.1 (54th)

Passing Eff. (Quinn)

222.0

164.46

150.9

161.13 (4th)

125.87 (55th)

Total offense yd avg

511.0

343.0

489.7

474.00 (10th)

345.5 (81st)

Scoring Offense

49.0

41.0

36.0

38.25 (7th)

24.1 (72nd)

Time of Possession

26:21

32:12

35:12

33:43

30:50

Red Zone TDs

3/4 (75%)

1/3(33%)

21/27 (81%)

25/ 34 (73%)

25 / 36 (69%)

Defense

Category

BYU

UT

1st Six

2005

2004

Yards per rush given up

2.2

2.8

4.4

3.8

2.7

Avg yards per PA

7.0

5.8

7.7

7.4

7.9

Avg yards per PC

12.2

14.4

14.8

14.3

13.6

Pass completion percentage

58%

41%

52%

52%

58%

Quarterback sacks

4

3

13

20

30

Rushing yd avg. against

75.0

109.0

126.3

117.75 (25th)

88.2 (4th)

Passing yd avg. against

317.0

187.0

304.8

291.63 (110th)

281.2 (116th)

Passing Eff. def. avg.

122.73

90.39

122.24

118.87 (45th)

138.34 (98th)

Total yd offense avg. against

392.0

296.0

431.2

409.38 (86th)

369.4 (54th)

Scoring Defense

23.0

21.0

25.67

24.75 (52nd)

24.08 (46th)

Red Zone Defense

3/4 (75%)

XXX

16/23 (70%)

19/27 (70%)

33/38 (87%)

Red Zone TD Def.

3/4 (75%)

XXX

13/23 (57%)

16/27 (59%)

19/38 (50%)

Turnovers

Category

BYU

UT

1st Six

2005

2004

Interceptions by ND

2

2

7

11

9

Fumbles Forced / Recovered

0/0

2/1

12/7

14/ 8

27 / 12

Turnovers gained

2

3

14

19

21

Had Intercepted

0

0

5

5

10

Fumbles / Lost

3/2

2/1

9/3

14/ 6

15 / 6

Turnovers lost

2

1

8

11

16

Turnover Margin

+0

+2

+6

+8

+5

Special Teams

Category

BYU

UT

1st Six

2005

2004

Kickoff return average

17.2

23.3

19.8

19.7

18.7

Kickoff return average allowed

21.7

21.4

19.1

20.0

19.9

Punt return average

7.5

39.3

16.5

19.7

10.8

Punt return average allowed

11.8

4.7

5.2

6.3

8.2

Fun Fact of the Day: Notre Dame's 41 game winning streak against Navy is still the longest in NCAA history. But the 2nd longest streak, Nebraska's 36 game winning streak against Kansas ended last weekend. The 2nd longest streak still active belongs to Tennessee, who have won 22 over Vanderbilt.